Three questions I received on the future of the world:

Question: You mentioned that the governing of the world must change to that of love your friend as yourself, one man with one heart. Why don’t you and your group start with a working model of such a system to serve as a beacon and inspiration for the rest? It would be easier to start on a smaller scale rather than a big one.

My Answer: Due to the current time and circumstances, we cannot close ourselves off but must devote all our energy to disseminating Kabbalah in the world, as it is the means of preventing the world from falling into the Third World War.

Question: What do you mean when you say that we are now entering Biblical times?

My Answer: I meant that we have to start observing the Biblical principle, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Question: In reference to your post, Unity for the Right Purpose Can Stabilize the Banking System, I hope you are not speaking of a new world order, one government, one bank, one currency, and everyone being monitored with chips implanted in their bodies.

My Answer: All of humanity is an integral (global) organism. Hence, everyone must submit to one law of total interaction on all levels of our activity. This means, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Last Generation,” that eventually there will be one spiritual government, which will regulate all the activities of the world’s inhabitants.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam Describes the Conditions of Life in a Globalized World
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Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

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Questions I received on the upcoming Congress and inner work:

Question: What is the best way to prepare for the upcoming Congress?

My Answer: You should study the materials from the last Congress (February 2008) and participate in the preparations for the upcoming Congress. Go through the materials about the Congress, and finally, you should be systematically present at our daily lessons (held between 3am and 6am Israel time), or at least at the third part (from 5am until 6am Israel time).

Question: I am trying to find the best way of studying for me. Can a student who’s attracted to his own sex and who studies Kabbalah regularly over the Internet, participate in the Congress that will take place in Israel (to actually come and be there together with everyone)? Can he participate in the Congress preparations? Can he sometimes attend a congress in other countries?

My Answer: Yes.

Question: What is the correct way to unite with the common system?

My Answer: Through the quality of bestowal.

Question continued: Is a person capable of this?

My Answer: Yes, if he does it through a group, by receiving Ohr Makif from above.

Question continued: What kind of force is this, and where can it be found?

My Answer: Only in the study of Kabbalah.

Question: If I understand that everything I do is for the Creator’s sake, and my intention is “for the sake of the Creator,” how can I use Kabbalah to achieve my purpose in life?

My Answer: If you’re already at a point where everything is for the Creator’s sake, then there’s nothing more for you to do…

Question: How is it possible to go from external love to inner love?

My Answer: The same way it is possible to go from egoism to altruism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Live Your Life as Usual, and Study Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: Everyone Must Know About Kabbalah
Wondrous Wisdom: “Perceiving the Spiritual”
Spiritual Search: “Intent For the Sake of the Creator”
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Transforming Egoism to Altruism”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Time of Ascent”

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News Report (from CNSNews): “Where Did the Bailout Money Go? Banks Can’t, or Won’t, Say” After receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation’s largest banks say they can’t track exactly how they’re spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. … The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest? None of the banks provided specific answers. … no bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money. … Garrett, the New Jersey congressman, said the nation might never get a clear answer on where hundreds of billions of dollars went.

Gazeta.ru reports that the situation in Russia is similar: President Vladimir Putin stated that the financial sector received five trillion rubles in aid; however, most of this money never reached the economy.

My Comment: Indeed, these are the natural actions of our egoism. The people who got their hands on this money are unable to let go of it. The solution is to immediately create a different system of all our interactions. It must start with a global education and upbringing. But for the time being, we should institute a wide-ranging social regulation, as Baal HaSulam advises in the article “The Last Generation” (meaning the last egoistic generation).

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Present Crisis Is a Crisis of People’s Trust in the Egoistic System of Relationships
Laitman.com Post: What’s the Surest Bet to Save Your Money In Time of Crisis?

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Two questions I received on feeling repulsed by unity:

Question: All of this hugging and singing at the Congresses and friends’ assemblies seem ridiculous and artificial. It’s simpler for me to study over the Internet and to work on dissemination than participate in such actions of unification.

My Answer: You are absolutely correct – these actions look childish, awkward, artificial and fake. But this is exactly what we have to do. All the participants understand that they are playing – playing against their own egoism. By performing these actions and making efforts, they draw the Upper Light that corrects them. Our game is like the game of a child, and it’s the most serious thing you can do because this is precisely how a person grows! The difference is that a child is forced to play by Nature, in order to develop, whereas we must be the ones to force ourselves to play. This is our freedom of choice: in choosing the spiritual development.

Question: I’ve been listening to your lessons for a long time, and every time you say that we are one soul and all human beings are involuntarily connected with each other, I get very irritated and disturbed hearing this again and again. Why it is so difficult to accept and understand this?

My Answer: Because it subconsciously humiliates, obligates and limits your egoism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Game Is a Serious Affair
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Laitman.com Post: Invitation to the 2009 International Kabbalah Congress!

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News Report (from Times Online): The Milgram experiment was one of the most infamous experiments in history, offering compelling evidence that almost everybody is capable of great evil. Almost 50 years on, it has finally been repeated by scientists – showing that people today are still willing to hurt others when prompted by an authority figure.

The new research [by Dr. Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University in California], published in the journal American Psychologist, suggests that little has changed since Professor Stanley Milgram’s work. … Dr. Burger found that 70 per cent of participants were willing to continue delivering electric shocks once the learner had cried out in pain at 150 volts.

My Comment: If the experiment was done under natural conditions, the researchers would find that the subjects are 100% willing to use others in any way they can, even for the tiniest gain, and even without any gain at all. It’s because we assess our situation relative others, “The worse off others are, the better off I am.”

The events taking place will force us to reveal our evil nature and to recognize its evil power over us so much that we will agree to change it to love and goodness. In principle, it doesn’t matter if we receive or bestow, because it’s all about fulfillment! If we were born with the quality “to bestow” instead of the quality “to receive,” we would similarly be completely unable to understand how it is possible to “receive” rather than to “bestow.” This transition is simply a psychological problem. After all, fulfillment is the most important thing! For the time being a person sees fulfillment only within himself and evaluates it according to the misery of his neighbor.

Related Material:
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Article “Attainment of Unity of the Universe”

Filed under: Egoism - 1 Comment →

News Report (from Universe Today): Billions of years in the future, when our sun bloats up into a red giant, it will expand to consume the Earth’s orbit. But wait, you say, the Earth travels the Earth’s orbit… what’s going to happen to our beloved planet? Will it be gobbled up like poor Mercury and Venus?

My Comment: When I was in school, we were taught that our Universe was eternal and infinite. Then they discovered the Big Bang and started teaching us something else: that the Universe was created from a micro-dose of matter 15 billion years ago. But will the Universe end someday? This is a question science still doesn’t have an answer to. However, everything that has a beginning also has an end.

Kabbalah says that everything exists only for man and inside man, or more exactly, inside his sensations. In order to come out of our perception of the world and enter a new perception, we have been given time to correct our qualities (sensations): 6000 years from the birth of Adam, the first man to discover a different, Upper World. We all have to “migrate” there in the remaining 230 years we have left until reaching the 6000 year mark. Kabbalah explains how to do this quickly, consciously, and easily. Even if we’re stubborn and refuse to budge, nature will still banish us from this world and force us to “migrate.”

Related Material:
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“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Items 19-25

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News Report (from Leadership Nigeria): Pope Benedict XVI yesterday warned that the world was swimming toward ruin if self-interest prevails over solidarity during tough economic times… Benedict said, “If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart.”

Related Material:
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News Report (from Safe Haven): Has the bear market run its course? Is a new bull market on the horizon? … just as none of the previous “bottoms” since January were THE bottom, I see no evidence at this time to say that the November bottom has marked THE bottom …we are now dealing with K-wave winter and I want to again remind you of the signs that occur in this season.

• “Bankruptcies Accelerate and High Debt Eliminated by Bankruptcy” – This has obviously begun and is no doubt related to the housing and credit bubbles.
• “Social Upheaval and Society Becomes Negative” – We are only just beginning to see this.
• “Banking System Shaken and New One Introduced” – The banking system is now only beginning to be shaken. There should be much more to come.
• “Free Market System Blamed and Socialist Solutions Offered” – This has not yet happened, but just wait.
• “National Fascist Political Tendencies” – More to come.
• “Debt Level Very Low After Defaults and Bankruptcy” – This has not happened.
• “Trade Conflicts Worsen” – This basically has not happened.
• “View of the Future at a Low Ebb” – This has not happened as everyone seems to be looking for the bottom.
• “New Work Ethics Develop Since Jobs are Scarce” – If I can assure you of one thing, it is that this has not happened.
• “Greed is Purged from the System” – I can absolutely assure you that this has not happened yet.
• “Real Estate Prices Find Bottom” – This has not happened.
• “Investors are Very Conservative and Risk Averse” – Again, this has absolutely not occurred.
• “Interest Rates and Prices Bottom” – Not happened.
• “A New Economy Begins to Emerge” – Has not happened.
• “Stock Markets Reach Bottom and Begin New Bull Markets” – We aren’t there yet and I view any relief rallies from these oversold levels merely as intermission.

My Comment: These are the conclusions of an economist, but a Kabbalist’s conclusions are even more critical: in order for the crisis to end, man must correct it. The crisis is a disease called egoism. In order to overcome it, we have to cure or correct egoism, transforming it to bestowal and love (absolute altruism). We should at least begin correcting it, at least begin to realize the necessity of doing so, or at least be willing to hear about this possibility.  Even if we do just this much, the world will already start shifting from the crisis toward prosperity.

Over the course of the crisis we may encounter periods when it will seem as though the crisis is over, and we will begin to seek new egoistic ascents in various areas of our life. After all, the crisis is multifaceted and envelops all areas of our lives. The media has long been speaking of crises in science, education, family, and so on.

Our situation is similar to the Egyptian plagues, which were followed by periods when it seemed that all the bad things were over, whereas in reality those periods were only a preparation for the next blow. Eventually, Nature will force us to become an integral part of it and to function by the law of optimal consumption and absolute unity, according to the rule, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” However, this won’t be done forcefully, like in the Soviet experiment, but consciously. It is precisely by realizing this that we will reach the bottom of the crisis.

Related Material:
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A question I received: You used to say that Kabbalah is only for those who want to listen and study, for those who aspire to reveal the Creator. But now you say that everyone has to hear about it, even if they don’t aspire to the same thing. Why this change of opinion? Do you think that because of the global financial crisis, we now have to involve even those who couldn’t care less about Kabbalah, or about anything at all but their earthly, egoistic desires?

My Answer: I don’t think anything myself. This is what Baal HaSulam wrote, and I am just following his instructions as much as possible. I am certain that only this knowledge can benefit the world. And if someone disagrees, I don’t take their opinion into consideration! How can I consider the opinions of people who can’t see beyond their egoism, don’t understand the world’s governance, and don’t feel the Creator and His actions? If you have the remedy for a dying patient, how can you just stand by and not hand it to him?

In your opinion, who should people listen to if not the Kabbalists? The global nature of the crisis indicates that everyone must know about the reason for their suffering. This is exactly why Kabbalah is now being revealed. See the articles “Time to Act,” “Messiah’s Horn,” and others.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Crisis or Not, We Have to Disseminate Kabbalah

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News Report (from asahi.com): A 15-year study in Akita Prefecture has found … that men who said they had something to live for ran a 38 percent lower risk of dying than men who did not. Moreover, the risk of dying of a stroke was as much as 72 percent lower for those with something to live for. … The results suggest that finding a purpose and joy in life may override the purported risk of suffering a stroke due to stress, the team said. It added that it did not know yet why there is such a difference.

My Comment: When there is a goal shining for you from afar, it fulfills, energizes and revives you. However, all our goals gradually become worthless – with the exception of the spiritual, Upper Goal. Therefore, studying Kabbalah is beneficial, even for your health!

News Report (translated from expert.ru): “Sorry, this product is temporarily out of stock” Goods are disappearing from the distribution facilities. This is happening because banks are not giving loans to the suppliers and manufacturers. Because banks are limiting the credit lines, everyone is left without resources. Meantime, the suppliers are demanding payment prior to shipment.

My Comment: The only thing that will enable us to understand how to arrange our lives in the new, united world is the knowledge about the global interaction, knowledge of the laws of this closed system. Kabbalah provides this explanation. Only this wisdom can give people the energy to unite (Ohr Makif) in spite of every person’s individual egoism.

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